Newly appointed Kemi Badenoch wastes no time tackling the big issues faced by LGBTQ+ Brits, like… er… people who advocate for LGBTQ+ Brits.
This week, new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced members of his first cabinet, including Jeremy Hunt, who keeps his role as Chancellor, James Cleverely as Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab as deputy PM, and Kemi Badenoch in a returning role as both Trade and Women & Equalities minister.
Following Badenoch’s announcement, many LGBTQ+ Brits used Twitter to share their concerns over her re-appointment in that particular role, specifically pointing to a 2018 audio recording – obtained last year by Vice – in which the Minister for Equalities could reportedly be heard making some worrying anti-trans comments.
Vice World News detailed that the leaked recording included the MP questioning same-sex marriage and asking, “what are transsexuals looking for?”, which would understandably be a bit of a red flag, given her literal job description as Minister for Equalities is “addressing the discrimination and inequalities that LGBT people face”.
A reminder again (someone CC Kemi): The word ‘transsexual’ is considered offensive and outdated by many and, as pointed out by Vice in their report, “Misgendering trans women may go against UK equality laws”.
In case you missed it yesterday:
“It’s no longer about minority rights in terms of race any more or nationality,” Badenoch can be heard saying per the Vice report. “it’s now, you know like, it’s not even about sexuality now, it’s now like the whole transgender movement, where, OK well we’ve got gay marriage, and civil partnerships, so what are transsexuals looking for?”
Badenoch then says: “Even when, you know, so, people hear about, you know like the whole bathroom thing, it’s actually more of an American thing but they have a similar problem, that, right so now it’s not just about being free to marry who you want, you now want to have men using women’s bathrooms.”
It’s alleged that in the recording, ‘the minister also appeared to mock gay marriage, and the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013’, although no exact wording was detailed in the report.
Today, in her first public outing as Women & Equalities Minister, rather than address the plethora of issues faced by LGBTQ+ people living in Britain, Badenoch decided to take aim at Benjamin Cohen, CEO of LGBTQ+ news outlet Pink News.
Cohen had, one day earlier, along with many LGBT+ Brits, shared his concerns over the leaked recording, along with other issues, writing from his personal Twitter account.
So why did Badenoch feel the need for that to even be on her agenda, while public trust is at an all-time low and the whole Government has, for months, been falling to pieces?
Well, that’s the question many on social media asked.
The Equalities Minister could have tackled the Government’s botched ban on conversion therapy, rising levels of LGBTQ+ hate crime across the country, continued attacks on trans people, the overall deep sense of panic felt by most of the country following unprecedented Government reshuffles and a sinking economy.
Some tweets below.
Kemi Badenoch could have used her first appearance as Women & Equalities Minister to ban conversion therapy, demand better trans healthcare and condemn the rise in LGBT+ hate crimes.
Instead, she attacked the CEO of @PinkNews.
The entire LGBT+ community have my full support.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 26, 2022
kemi badenoch using her first equalities questions to talk about my boss’s tweets instead of, oh, i don’t know… banning torturous conversion therapy, addressing rising anti-lgbtq+ hate crimes and the urgent need for better trans healthcare… pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? pic.twitter.com/ku5z3bHSsT
— ryan john butcher (@ryanjohnbutcher) October 26, 2022
And, just like we told you, so it begins!
Straight away today, in her first day in the job, Kemi Badenoch began by LYING to the whole of the Common, about Benjamin Cohen, owner of Pink News.
An attack on a gay Jewish man, simply for existing.
Its begun! https://t.co/fYGpRx02te— LGBWithTheT (@LGBwiththeT) October 26, 2022
If you need any persuading as to how little ‘gender critical’ transphobes actually care about women’s rights, I invite you to look at their virtually unanimous support for the appointment of Kemi Badenoch, whose every fucking vote has been to the detriment of women.
— Scary Brenda 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (they/them) (@SpillerOfTea) October 26, 2022